MMR051010
Alinghi Wins Hotly-Contested Act 9 TRAPANI, Italy (October 9, 2005) – There was everything to play for in Italy on the last day of racing in the 2005 America’s Cup season. The final race would decide the winner of the Trapani Louis Vuitton Act 9, and while Swiss Defenders Alinghi had a stranglehold on the America’s Cup Class Season Championship, teams where fighting to finish as well as possible in Act 9 to boost their position on the season championship leaderboard. Hundreds of spectator boats braved the rough conditions to enjoy the last day of racing in the 2005 Louis Vuitton Acts, and they were not disappointed. The final run to the finish was incredibly tight, with the Spanish boat nosing ahead of BMW ORACLE Racing (USA) in a ‘photo’ finish. Alinghi was third, a good enough result for it to claim the top of the leaderboard on the tie-break. In terms of the America’s Cup Class Season Championship, with five wins in six Acts, Alinghi is the class of the fleet. BMW ORACLE Racing and Emirates Team New Zealand are fully ten points in arrears, with the Kiwis getting the nod for second place by virtue of beating the Americans in two of their three match races this year. Luna Rossa (ITA) is fourth, followed by Desafio Español and Victory Challenge (SWE). The French K-Challenge sneaks ahead of +39 Challenge (ITA) on a tie break. The Swiss Defender was presented with prizes for the Louis Vuitton Act 9 title and the America’s Cup Class Season Championship at a ceremony in the America’s Cup Park. 1 SUI Alinghi 56 2 USA BMW ORACLE Racing 56 3 NZL Emirates Team New Zealand 46 4 ESP Desafio Español 40 5 RSA Team Shosholoza 6 ITA Luna Rossa Challenge 34 7 ITA +39 Challenge 26 8 SWE Victory Challenge 24 9 GER United Internet Team Germany 22 10 ITA Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia Team 19 11 CHN China Team 16 12 FRA K-Challenge 12www.americascup.com Virtual Spectator ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship 2005 HAMILTON HARBOUR, Bermuda (October 9, 2005) -Bermuda’s Olympian, Paula Lewin, will be going up against the best women match racers in the world this month when the Virtual Spectator ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship are held in Hamilton Harbour. Lewin, who sailed for Bermuda in the Yngling class at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, has been mainly sailing Etchells since the Athens Games – in fact she, along with crew Billy McNiven and Leatrice Roman, were recently crowned national champions. While Lewin has mainly been sailing in Bermuda following the gruelling campaign for the 2004 Olympics, she did travel to Annapolis this summer for the ISAF Grade 1 Santa Maria Cup which featured many of the women skippers who will racing later this month in the championships. Eleven of the 13 top ISAF ranked women match racers, according to the rankings released on 22 June 2005, will contend for the World Championship title – and a share in the $25,000 prize money. And the top two skippers will have the chance to compete in the prestigious, ISAF Grade 1 King Edward VII Gold Cup on Hamilton Harbour. Sally Barkow from the United States is the reigning match race champion whose team just won the 2005 Rolex International Women’s Keelboat Championship. She will defend her current ISAF Women’s Match Racing World title against the top ranked women skippers in the world today namely Claire Leroy from France who is ranked at number one, Marie Bjorling from Sweden who is ranked number two, Nina Braestruo from Denmark who is the number three ranked sailor, number four Jenny Axhede from Sweden, number five Klaartje Zuiderbaan from Holland, number seven Christelle Philippe from France, number nine Linda Rahm from Sweden, number ten Lotte Meldgaard Pederson from Denmark, number eleven Paula Lewin from Bermuda, number 12 Betsy Alison from the United States and number 13 Nicky Souter from Australia. Action begins on Saturday, October 15 with the Virtual Spectator ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship sailed in J24’s and the unseeded ISAF Grade 3 Gold Cup qualifying match racing event being sailed in classic IOD’s. It will be non-stop action straight through to Tuesday when the ISAF prize giving crowns the women’s world champion and racing confirms the top six in the Gold Cup Qualifier. Virtual Spectator ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship Entrants (Helm, Crew, Current ISAF World Match Race Ranking as of 22 September 2005) * Claire LEROY (FRA), Elodie BERTRAND, Ingrid CERRATO, Borothee Martin D’AURAY – 1 * Marie BJÖRLING (SWE), Anna HOLMDAHL, Elisabeth NILSSON, Annika CARLUNGER – 2 * Nina BRAESTRUP (DEN), Tina Schmidt CHRISTENSEN, Anne-Sophie LOHSE, Line MORKEBJERG – 3 * Klaartje ZUIDERBAAN (NED), Nanda NENGERMANN, Trijntje ZUIDERBAAN, TBA – 4 * Jenny AXHEDE (SWE), Johanna SARNA, Nina BAKE, Erin ADERMAN – 6 * Sally BARKOW (USA), Debbie CAPOZZI, Carrie HOWE, TBA – 7 * Christelle PHILIPPE (FRA), Celine DEVAUX, Vanessa GODET, Elodie LESAFFRE – 8 * Linda RAHM (SWE), Suzanne NYBERG, Helena BARNE, Anna NORDLANDER – 9 * Lotte MELDGAARD PEDERSEN (DEN), TBA – 10 * Paula LEWIN (BER), TBA – 12 * Betsy ALISON (USA), Sandy HAYES, Chafee EMORY, TBA – 19 * Nicky SOUTER (AUS), TBA – 22 http://www.vssailing.com/index2.html Conrad Humphreys Racing to Compete in New Volvo Extreme 40 circuit PLYMOUTH, UK (October 6, 2005) – Conrad Humphreys Racing today announced that it will enter a British team in the Volvo Extreme 40 (VX40) grand prix circuit during 2005-06. The Great Britain VX40, which is sponsored by Motorola, will be skippered by Humphreys and includes Team GBR members Leigh McMillan and Will Howden, both British hopefuls for Beijing 2008 and Global Challenge winning navigator Hamish Oliphant. The Motorola-Humphreys VX40 is a 40ft one-design multihull that has been designed for fast-paced inshore grand prix racing. The new circuit which will be held during some of the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 stopovers, including Spain, Brazil, US, UK and Holland. The first grand prix starts in Sanxenxo, Spain, during the first week of November. Russell Coutts Produces New High Performance Racer GENEVA (October 5, 2005) – Russell Coutts, the only skipper to win the America’s Cup three times in a row, has translated his long-standing passion for yacht design into a new light-displacement 44-foot boat, the Russell Coutts 44, which will be officially launched on October 8 at the Genoa International Boat Show. “I’m tremendously excited by this project, and really pleased at the way the new boat is looking and working,” Coutts says about the 44, which will also be on display at the Barcolana regatta over the same weekend at Trieste. An engineering graduate of the University of Auckland, Coutts has been working on the new boat since ending his America’s Cup involvement. He co-designed it with Andrej Justin, who has designed several racing boats, including a 33-foot match race JustinTen and an 80-foot carbon, canting keel MaxiJena. They undertook first testing on Garda Lake in August with members of the Danish crew Coutts has been racing with during the 2005 season, and Coutts says the whole team was highly pleased at the new boat’s speed and performance. While the new boats have some distinctive America’s Cup features, says Coutts, they are light-displacement, high performance racers and designed to sail with seven person crew, or for a professional match racing format they could be sailed by just five crew. With a powerful sail plan, the new boat is intended strictly for racing, either match racing or day sailing fleet races. Four boats have been produced in carbon fiber using the infusion method of construction in very precise NC cut female moulds. It features a carbon mast with PBO rigging and a carbon boom and retractable gennaker strut. The engine also features a hydraulically controlled retractable prop. The boat is targeted at the day sailor who wishes to sail a high performance one-design class. It has no comforts for cruising, and with a big open cockpit, a fairly narrow beam and the huge sail plan it produces a lot of excitement, Coutts says. “The philosophy was to create something special for the racing sailor – a bit like owning a sports car versus a 4-wheel drive!” The boat features a removable stern scoop with a two-piece mast, both developed to provide for easy transportation, assembly and winter storage. Many features on the boat, such as the weed cutter and retractable prop, will be on display at Genoa and Trieste. Production has drawn on many different suppliers in different countries providing a wide range of expertise. The World Carbon Company based in Slovenia produced the first four boats under a license for Europe, Russia, Africa and the United States. The class rules and the construction of the boat are being tightly controlled to protect the one-design concept and reduce development costs for participants. For fleet racing it will be an owner-driver class with strict limitations on the number of professional crew. For more on the Russell Coutts 44 watch out for further announcements at www.russellcoutts.net 49th Annual Fort Lauderdale-Palm Beach Race PALM BEACH, Fla. – October 10, 2005 – This year’s 49th Annual Wirth M. Munroe Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach Yacht Race on Friday, December 2nd, 2005. Enjoy a highly energetic day of competition of world-class sailboats on the beautiful waters off the southeast coast of Florida. The race commences at 10:00 a.m. from Fort Lauderdale with finish and awards celebration at Palm Beach. Hosted by both the Sailfish Club of Florida and the Cruising Club of America. PHRF, TP52 and other classes (5 boat minimum) are invited. This year’s race will also offer a new IRC class. The social part of the weekend begins at the Skipper’s Meeting scheduled for 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 1st at the Lauderdale Yacht Club, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Following the race on Friday, December 2nd, enjoy complimentary cocktails and the signature Seafood Buffet with live entertainment at the Sailfish Club of Florida, Palm Beach. To participate in this annual race, please contact Ingela O’Brien at the Sailfish Club of Florida, 561.844.0206. ingelaobrien@sailfishclub.com www.sailfishclub.com 2005 Senator’s Cup ANNAPOLIS, Md. (October 10, 2005) – With remnants of Tropical Storm Tammy lingering long enough over the mid Atlantic coast to produce two solid days and nights of torrential rain and winds to over 30 knots, event organizers of the third Annapolis Volvo Senator¹s Cup were forced to decide the outcome after match three in favor of Law who was leading local-based New Zealander Gavin Brady 2-1 after Friday’s competition. ‘Continuing to race today in these conditions would really have not been suitable for the purpose of our event,’ said event chairman John PICA yesterday. ‘Our objective is to raise awareness for our charities, support our sponsors, and have fun. While we had a great time over the first two days, our skippers and boat owners felt it would have been difficult to achieve that today.’ Racing in the event started on Thursday, with a practice round held in light air to warm up the crews followed by a fun promotional race, with Andrzej and Gosia Rojek’s (USA) Swan 45 Better Than finishing barely a boat length ahead of Steve Devoe’s (USA) bDevocean. Both boats under spinnaker, gybe-dueling through the crowded mooring field in Spa Creek and just yards from the world’s largest in-water sailboat show, was a spectacular prelude to the following day’s match race action. Friday’s race action started with Law winning the first match after holding off an attack from Brady on the first spinnaker run. But building breeze and waves in the Severn River prompted organizers to call off use of spinnakers for matches two and three. This did not diminish, however, the closeness of the action, as these two America’s Cup veteran helmsmen using mostly local crew talent traded results in the remaining matches, with Brady winning and successfully defending the favored right side of the course to win match two, and Law capitalizing on a navigational error made by Brady to overcome a penalty and go on to win match three. With monsoon-like conditions persisting throughout the day, Principal Race Officer Dick Neville of the Storm Trysail Club and Chief Umpire Jim Capron decided to terminate racing rather than risk damage to boats or crews. www.senatorscup.com
